The US and NATO must not intervene in Libya, say US Greens

WASHINGTON -- Green Party leaders strongly urged the White House not to launch a military intervention in Libya, saying that

democracy must be achieved by Libyans without meddling by the US or NATO.

Greens insisted that the US and NATO honor the request of human rights lawyer Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, spokesman for the new Libyan National Transitional Council, who said, "We are against any foreign intervention or military intervention in our internal affairs... This revolution will be completed by our people."

"We're seeing a repeat of the kind of propaganda, deception, and phony rhetoric about liberation, democracy, and human rights that were used to boost the US invasion of Iraq," said Leenie Halbert, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States and a member of the party's International Committee. "Liberation, democracy, and human rights were never on the table when the US government made deals with Gadhafi for Libyan oil or when President Obama promised him a $77 million dollar military aid package. The real goal of a military intervention in Libya is control over the country's oil resources and the planned Trans-Saharan gas pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria."

Green Party leaders warned that a foreign 'special forces' action in Libya that was ostensibly in support of the Libyan people would have the opposite effect, compromising the democratic uprising and subjecting the country to the kind of destruction and mass casualties that resulted from the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Green Party leaders also said that medical and other aid, as well as asylum for those fleeing the country, are urgently necessary for Libyans suffering from Gadhafi's actions to crush the rebellion. But Greens added that such aid must come from humanitarian organizations and opposed the linking of such aid to US and other western military and political objectives.

"The Obama Administration must reject all the resurrected neocon arguments for military action in Libya. The fact that standards for intervention are based on access to oil shows that the US government hasn't begun to liberate our own country from dependence on fossil fuels and the political grip of oil companies. Fossil fuel addiction remains the greatest threat to both global climate and global peace," said Muhammed Malik, co-chair of the Miami-Dade Green Party and a member of the Green Party's International Committee. Mr. Malik helped organize a rally at the Federal Courthouse in Ft. Lauderdale on Feb. 26 against US military intervention in Libya. This summer, he will address the dangers of military intervention at a forum, entitled "Self-Determination: Opportunities and Challenges" at Florida International University..